Costs will be offset by lower bills for supply, repairs
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Light bulbs in all schools will be replaced with longer-lasting, less electricity-hungry substitutes. Cracks, leaks and door jambs will be sealed. Toilet bowls will be swapped out for ones that use less water.
Those are the little projects in a $15 million plan the Board of Education approved Monday night to reduce energy use in the district by nearly one-half.
Other major aspects of the work will bring air conditioning to 24 classrooms at the Auten Road Intermediate School, as well as two wings of the high school. New boilers will be installed at the middle school and four of the five elementary grades buildings.
All the work will be done in the next year or two, and financed over 20 years. The idea is for lower energy bills and fewer repairs to offset the cost of the improvements to facilities, with 10 percent or so of the cost coming from state rebates. If costs are greater, energy consultant Honeywell will pay the difference, in effect guaranteeing the savings.
No upfront costs means no tax impact. The board is expected to act in May or June on a 19-year financing plan with the first payment in the 2015-16 school year. Bids to award projects should be voted in June, with some of the first work starting in August. The work, done primarily on second shifts, holidays and Saturdays, should take about one year, said Joseph Coscia, sales executive for Honeywell, and not affect the educational process.
While saving the school district money while modernizing facilities, the project takes a loftier view by reducing greenhouses gases to have the effect of taking 417 automobiles off the road and saving or planting 251 acres of trees, a Honeywell document says.
"The quickest and most efficient way to be a good environmental steward is to simply use less energy," says a graphic in Honeywell’s presentation.
Not all projects will be done at all nine schools, but all will have electronic monitoring of energy use, computer power management, water conservation measures and lighting upgrades and parking lot lights, for instance.
Honeywell will protect the district’s costs by agreeing to a firm fixed price, with no change orders, a presentation slide said. If project bids are above estimates, Honeywell will pay the difference. If bids are lower, the school can pocket the savings for more work or credit.
A financial overview promised a guaranteed energy savings of $20.7 million over 20 years. Project savings will exceed project costs – including legal, engineering, architectural and interest expenses – or Honey well pays, Mr. Coscia said.